Recap on what La Niña is: A cooling of the tropical waters in the Central Pacific Ocean. It's part of a 3-7 year cycle where the waters cool, then warm (El Niño) with "neutral" periods in between when the water is near average temperatures.

The CPC issued a La Niña watch earlier this month, predicting the phenomenon to have a 70% chance of developing during the fall months and a 55% chance of persisting during winter 2016-17.

La Niña favors drier, warmer winters in the southern U.S. and wetter, cooler conditions in the northern U.S. If La Niña conditions develop, forecasters say it should be weak and potentially short-lived.

Last winter was the Lower 48's warmest Dec-Feb period in 121 years, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

So what does this mean for Southwest Florida.

As stated above, La Niña conditions typically favor a drier, warmer pattern during the winter months for folks in the southern U.S.

The average monthly temperature for the winter months (Dec-Feb) are as follows:

December - 76°/56°January - 74°/54°February - 77°/56°

The average monthly rainfall for the winter months (Dec-Feb) are as follows:

December - 1.71"January - 1.94"February - 2.15"

So, if La Niña develops and persists through all of winter we may be dealing with slightly above average temperatures and below average rainfall.

The CPC predicts there will be a good chance of seeing drier than average conditions during the winter months.

The CPC predicts there will be a slight chance of seeing warmer than average conditions during the winter months.